UK Sport's Exchequer funding was cut by 28 per cent in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) in October but, thanks to a change in the distribution of National Lottery money, it actually saw an increase in funding in the run-up to the Olympics and Paralympics in London.

Nicholl, who replaced John Steele as chief executive after he left to take up the same role at the Rugby Football Union, has now revealed in a blog written exclusively for insidethegames her relief that they had largely escaped unaffected by the austerity measures imposed by the Coalition Government.

"While the arguments for retaining investment in our core responsibilities - supporting athlete performance, staging major sporting events and improving our international relations and development opportunities - were many, and London 2012 presented an obvious reason to maintain our activity, there was no guarantee that we would emerge unscathed," she writes.

"That we largely did was due first to the clear evidence of success to date, the progress of the performance system and the detailed case presented by UK Sport; and then some equally robust defence of our role by Minister and officials at the Department for Culture Media and Sport.

"We and our funded sports and athletes owe them sincere thanks for ensuring that our mission to 2012 and beyond can remain on track."

Nicholl claims that Britain's preparations for London 2012 are at a more advanced stage than they were at a similar point in the Olympic cycle in the build-up to Beijing, where the team finished fourth overall in the medals table with a record 47 medals, including 19 gold.

Her confidence is based upon a record-breaking year during which British athletes preparing for London 2012 won 103 medals in World and European Championships.

"Even though it is impossible to be certain about outcomes, we should be confident about where we stand at this point in the London 2012 cycle," Nicholl writes.

"We are, in terms of the total medals won by an increased number of different sports, further ahead than we were before Beijing - indeed before any Olympic and Paralympic Games of the modern era.

"And while we are still inevitably reliant on the major medal winning sports of our top athletes, the rowers, cyclists, sailors and swimmers, we are also seeing the breakthrough performances that we will need to meet our London targets of top four for the Olympics and second in the Paralympics, winning more medals in more sports than ever before."

To read Nicholl's full blog click here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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